Guarantee charge processing method and apparatus

ABSTRACT

The operation-state data of the uninterruptible power supply unit for the operation time of the uninterruptible power supply unit (UPS) deployed between the load facility and the commercial power source and used for the uninterruptible operation is provided, the guarantee charge dependent on the time during which the operation of the uninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed is stored, the stored guarantee charge is displayed as the amount billed when the provided operation-state data satisfies the stored guaranteed time. The provided operation-state data is input into the remote supervisory unit through the communication apparatus as well as an the identical operation-state data is displayed at the data display unit at the uninterruptible power supply unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/662,890filed on Sep. 15, 2000. The contents of application Ser. No. 09/662,890are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a charge and billing process method andprocess apparatus, especially to a charge and billing process method andprocess apparatus in case that an uninterruptible power supply unit(UPS) is rent to the user and made used with guarantee for the user.

Uninterruptible power supply units are used concomitantly withcommercial power sources in the various load facilities such as OAequipment, medical equipment, power distribution equipment for themedical field, amusement facilities, electric power supply facilities tobuildings. Those uninterruptible power supply units used concomitantlywith commercial power sources are typically owned and installed by thebusiness owner who owns the load facilities.

Uninterruptible power supply units (UPS) are used in order to increasethe quality of electric current of the commercial power source and toback up the commercial power source when its service interruption forthe load facilities in the factories and offices such as computers andcomputer servers, which are ordinarily purchased by the user or leasedor rent by the user.

In case of purchasing UPS, the initial investment is required to belarge, and in case of introducing UPS with lease or rental contract,there are such disadvantages that the rental fee may be high and thatUSP may not be provided for the long-term service lasting for 10 or 15years.

The conventional business schemes and their problems are describedconcretely below according to those examples shown above.

(A) Purchase Scheme and its Problem

In case that the user purchases UPS, the user has to provide the initialinvestment and bear heavy duty on large amount of investment. Aselection of UPS units and an arrangement for field service andmaintenance of UPS may arise as duty for the user.

(B) Lease or Rental Schemes and their Problems

In the lease or rental contract of UPS, though the client is notrequired to provide the initial investment, the annual expenditure maybecome comparatively higher than the case of purchasing UPS, and thereis such a disadvantage that USP may not be provided for the long-termservice lasting for 10 or 15 years.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is aimed in the light of the problems describedabove, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method andan apparatus for providing a presenting a concrete scheme, in which thecontractor, for example, the user does not need an initial investment,and he or she pays the fee after verifying the guaranteed power supplyservice of UPS, and for establishing a new power supply guaranteeservice of USP.

In the present invention, by applying well-known technologies for powersupply guarantee services of USP and for collecting the operation-statedata of UPS, a contract for power supply guarantee service by USP isdefined.

At first, the contractor B (facility manufacturer) as one of thecontractors introduces UPS into the facility of the contractor A (user).When UPS is installed between the load facility and the commercial powersource, and the power supply guarantee service starts, the UPS operationmemory unit is made in service, and the power supply guarantee servicerecord data is collected by the communication means like a telephoneline and so on, the guarantee charge is defined based on this record andby referring to a predefined rate, and the charge and billing process isapplied to the ser.

When UPS is out of order, the compensation money is determined byreferring to a predefined rate, and paid to the user.

When providing this service, needless to say, it is allowed for theservice provider to select whether the service provider uses his or herown property for UPS and so on as a component of the power supplyguarantee service system, or he or she operates the power supplyguarantee service system by introducing the third-party property with alease contract (for example, finance lease with compulsory purchasecondition).

The present invention provides concretely the following method andapparatus.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing method, inwhich the operation-state data of the uninterruptible power supply unitfor the operation time of the uninterruptible power supply unit (UPS)deployed between the load facility and the commercial power source andused for the uninterruptible operation is provided, the guarantee chargedependent on the time during which the operation of the uninterruptiblepower supply unit is guaranteed is stored, the stored guarantee chargeis displayed as the amount billed when the provided operation-state datasatisfies the stored guaranteed time or conforms to a designatedcondition with respect to the time.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing method, inwhich the operation-state data of the uninterruptible power supply unitfor the operation condition including the operation time of theuninterruptible power supply unit deployed between the load facility andthe commercial power source and used for the uninterruptible operationis provided, the guarantee charge dependent on the operation conditionof the uninterruptible power supply unit including the time during whichthe operation of the uninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed isstored, the stored guarantee charge is displayed as the amount billedwhen the provided operation-state data satisfies the operation conditionincluding the stored guaranteed time or conforms to a designatedcondition with respect to the operation condition.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing method, inwhich the provided operation-state data is input into the remotesupervisory unit through the communication apparatus, and the identicaloperation-state data is displayed at the data display unit at theuninterruptible power supply unit.

The present invention further provides a guarantee charge processingmethod, in which the operation-state data of the uninterruptible powersupply unit (UPS) deployed between the load facility and the commercialpower source and used for the uninterruptible operation is provided, theguarantee charge with respect to the operation-state of theuninterruptible power supply unit is stored, the providedoperation-state data the stored operation-state data of theuninterruptible power supply unit are compared, and then the storedguarantee charge is displayed as the amount billed based on thecomparison result.

The present invention further provides a guarantee charge processingmethod, in which the guarantee charge dependent on the time during whichthe operation of the uninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing method, inwhich the operation-state data of the uninterruptible power supply unitfor the operation condition including the operation time of theuninterruptible power supply unit deployed between the load facility andthe commercial power source and used for the uninterruptible operationis provided, the guarantee charge and the compensation money dependenton the operation condition of the uninterruptible power supply unitincluding the time during which the operation of the uninterruptiblepower supply unit is guaranteed is stored, whether the providedoperation-state data conforms to a designated condition with respect tothe operation condition including the stored guarantee time is judged,and the stored guarantee charge as the amount billed in case ofconformance is displayed, and in contrast, the stored compensation moneyas the demanded compensation money in case of inconformity is displayed.

The present invention further provides a guarantee charge processingmethod, in which the period during which the operation is guaranteed isa time defined in 24 hours a day.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing apparatuscomprising a supervisory unit for providing data of the operation-stateof the uninterruptible power supply unit deployed between the loadfacility and the commercial power source and used for theuninterruptible operation; a remote supervisory system for inputting theoperation-state data from the supervisory unit; a memory unit forstoring the guarantee charge dependent on the operation-state of theuninterruptible power supply unit including the time during which theoperation of the uninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed; aprocessing unit for comparing the operation-state with the operationcondition and processing the stored guarantee charge as the amountbilled; and a display unit for displaying the processed amount billed aswell as the comparison results.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing apparatus;in which said memory unit stores the compensation money, and saidprocessing unit processes the demanded compensation money.

The present invention provides a guarantee charge processing apparatus,in which the stored guarantee charge is determined so as to dependprimarily upon the guarantee period for the uninterruptible power supplyunit, and secondarily depend upon the time during which the operation ofthe uninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a concept of one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a detail view of a part of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a basic concept of the arithmeticprocessing of the amount billed.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the memory contentin the memory unit.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the content storedin the memory unit.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

One embodiment of the present invention is described below by referringto the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the concept of one embodiment of thepresent invention. In FIG. 1, in case that the electric power from thecommercial power source 1 is supplied to the load facility 2, theuninterruptible power supply unit 3 to be operated when an interruptionof electric power supply occurs due to lightning is installed betweenthe load equipment 4 and the lighting equipment 5. Thus, the electricpower is supplied to the load equipment 4 and the lighting equipment 5.The uninterruptible power supply unit 3 is installed in large quantitiesfor the factories, plants and medical fields. The uninterruptible powersupply unit 3 is known as an AC power supply equipment which guaranteesthe continuity of supplying the load electric power by combining aconversion apparatus (for example, rectifier), an energy storageapparatus (for example, secondary battery) and a switch when aninterruption of AC electric power supply occurs. The electric power issupplied from the rectifier 33 to the load facility 2 through theinverter in the ordinary operation, and the electric power is suppliedfrom the secondary battery when the interruption of electric powersupply occurs. As for the method for connecting the secondary battery,several methods are known which include a floating charging method, aswitching method, a chopper method, a PWM inverter method and a multipleinverter method. The installation of the uninterruptible power supplyunit 3 is done by the business owner with his or her responsibilityconventionally. In this embodiment, this uninterruptible power supplyunit 3 is installed by the service provider. In this case, the cost forthe service provider is collected by the method described later.

The uninterruptible power supply unit 3 has the rectifier 33, thesecondary battery 35 and the inverter 36. The supervisory system 7 isattached to the uninterruptible power supply unit 3 in order to observeits operation status including the operation time.

The service provider owns the remote supervisory system 11. The remotesupervisory system 11 has a communication unit 12, the memory unit 13and the data processing unit 14. The observation data sent from thesupervisory system 7 through the communication line 8 is supplied to thecommunication unit 12. The observation data may be provided from theplural uninterruptible power supply units to be used and those UPS's maybe controlled in a centralized manner.

A usage contract between the business owner and the service provider isclosed in advance before employing the uninterruptible power supply unit3. When making this contract, in order to organize the charge andbilling process for the usage, as described later, at first, what ispresented to the business owner is how many hours a day, for example, 24hours, or from what time to what time in a day the operation of theuninterruptible power supply unit should be guaranteed. Next, the termof contract is presented. For example, 5 years, 10 years or 15 years isadopted for the term of contract. As might be expected, longer the termof contract, higher the charge. The term of contract is called aguarantee period.

The guarantee charge is stored in the memory unit 13 based on the timeperiod (guarantee period) during which the operation of theuninterruptible power supply unit is guaranteed.

There is such a case that the guarantee period is not defined for thereason why the operation of the uninterruptible power supply unit 3 isnot required. There is also such a case that the switching operation ofthe uninterruptible power supply unit 3 may be performed daily or thatthe uninterruptible power supply unit 3 may break down. The conditiondefining that the service provider pay the compensate money to thebusiness owner with respect to such unstationary operation-states may beadded in the contract 16. The amount of the compensate money is storedin the memory unit 13 in relative to the operation-state. The data 17regarding to the number of switching operations and other data 18 suchas a routine inspection-related data are input to the input apparatus asa part of the supervisory data.

FIG. 2 shows a detail and concrete structure of what shown in FIG. 1. InFIG. 2, the uninterruptible power supply unit 3 has the ampere meterCT31, the voltmeter 32, the rectifier 33, the insulating equipment(Isolation AMP) 34, the secondary battery 35, the inverter 36, theampere meter CT37, and the voltmeter 38, and there are switches 39, 40and 41 at the connection points to the commercial power source 1, theload facility 2 and the secondary battery 35, respectively. In addition,the temperature sensor 42 is installed. The measurement signals fromthose instruments and equipment are supplied to the supervisory system 7and stored in the operation-state data memory unit 42. Those signals areprocessed by the data processing unit 43 along with the guarantee chargecondition, the compensation charge condition stored in another memoryunit, and the amount billed and the amount of the demanded compensationmoney based on the guarantee charge and the compensation money aredisplayed on the display unit 44. Those stored signals are sent to theremote supervisory system 11 through the communication line 8 by thecommunication unit 45 (in some cases, along the amount billed and theamount of the demanded compensation money). Those signals are receivedby the communication unit 12 of the remote supervisory system 11, andstored in the operation-state data memory unit 13, and those signals areprocessed by the data processing unit 14 along with the guarantee chargecondition, the compensation charge condition stored in another memoryunit, and the amount billed and the amount of the demanded compensationmoney based on the guarantee charge and the compensation money aredisplayed on the display unit 26. Thus, an identical content isdisplayed on the display unit 44 and 26. Hence, the business owner andthe service provider can verify the displayed content individually.

The guarantee charge and the compensation money so stored as describedabove can be determined by respecting primarily the period of time(guarantee period) covered by the contract for the uninterruptible powersupply unit 3, and secondarily the guarantee time.

As shown in FIG. 3, whether the operation-state data supplied as thesupervisory data satisfies the operation condition including theguarantee time or not is judged by the data processing unit 14. That is,whether the provided operation-state data is conformable to the resultof the proper operation including the performance in accordance with thecontract condition is judged. In case that this judgment concludes aproper operation, for example, when the provided operation-state datasatisfies the guarantee time, the stored guarantee charge is providedand displayed as an amount billed. In case that the operation-state datadoes not satisfy the stored operation condition, the compensation moneyis paid as a demanded compensation money from the service provider tothe business owner. The amount of money presented as the amount billedor the demanded compensation money depends on the judgment result andthe guarantee charge or the compensation money. The amount billed or thedemanded compensation money can be provided on CRT 15 (the display unit26, as shown in FIG. 2) or the printer.

As shown in FIG. 3, the memory unit 13 stores the operation condition 21including the guarantee time, the guarantee charge and the compensationmoney 22, and the guarantee period 23 in itself, based on the contract16 between the business owner and the service provider. Theoperation-state data is supplied to the data processing unit 14 (asshown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2) through the communication line 8 once a day,once a week, once a month or hour by hour, and then the comparison andjudgment 24 is performed with reference to the operation condition 21including the guarantee time in order to judge whether theoperation-state satisfies the operation condition. If theoperation-state data is judged to satisfy the operation conditiondefined as the result of the proper operation conformable to thecontract condition, the arithmetic process 25 is performed correspondingto the guarantee charge 22 during the guarantee period 23, and theamount billed 26 is provided. In case that the operation sate is data isjudged not to satisfy the operation condition, the demanded compensationmoney corresponding to the compensation money is provided by thearithmetic process 25. The amount billed 27 or the demanded compensationmoney 28 is displayed at the display unit 26, as shown in FIG. 2.

By means of making the financial firm mediate the transfer of the billand the fee, it is allowed for the financial firm to operate the monthlydemand for payment, and for the service provider to receive the lump-sumpayment for the usage of the facility from the financial firm.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the input and output of the data processingunit 14. As shown in FIG. 4, the present value for the guarantee timeand the preset value for the compensation money, the inverter start-uptime, the inverter shut-down time and the commercial power sourcebreak-down time as the data related to the number of switchingoperations, and the discharge time for the secondary battery, theambient air temperature, and the failed state as other data are provideinto the data processing unit 14. In addition, the amount of theguarantee charge and the amount of the compensation money are put intothe data processing unit 14. The result of data processing is furtherprocessed as the amount billed (in billing process) or the demandedcompensation money (in payment process), and then provided as output. Byreferring to the mechanical wear, thermal cycles and discharge cycles(for secondary batteries) and the upper bound of the ambient airtemperature, whether severe conditions are applied to theuninterruptible power supply unit is judged.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the content stored in the memory unit 13. Theguarantee charge, the basic guarantee fee and the passive guarantee feeare defined and stored as shown below.Guarantee Charge=Basic Guarantee Fee+Passive Guarantee Fee,Basic Guarantee Fee=Charge dependent on the time during which theoperation of UPS is guaranteed, andPassive Guarantee Fee=Additional charge in proportion to the degree ofthe severity of the operation environment for UPS.

As shown in the example 1, in case that the operation continues for 24hours, the guarantee charge is defined only by the basic guarantee feewithout any additional charge, but in case that the operation continuesfor 12 hours and the shutdown continues for 12 hours, the additional feeis charged.

As shown in the example 2, though the guarantee charge is defined onlyby the basic guarantee fee without any additional charge in case thatthere is no interruption of power supply during 24 hours, if there is achance of the interruption of power supply, the additional fee ischarged more than twice a month.

As shown in the example 3, though the guarantee charge is defined by thebasic guarantee fee without any additional charge in case that theambient temperature is constant, for example, 30° C., if the ambienttemperature changes for example from 25° C. to 35° C., the additionalfee is charged conditionally if the temperature change ΔT is more than10° C.

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart for the billing process. The preliminaryinvestigation is performed by marketing (S1), and the data of the loadfacilities of the business owner is obtained, and then the servicecontents to be provided from the service provider to the business owneris presented (S2). Next, the field study of the load facilities of thebusiness owner is done (S3). The collection of the operation status datais performed selectively if required, and the identification of theoperation pattern plan is necessarily performed (S4). The datacollection continues, for example, for one week, and the data analysis,the selection of equipment to be employed, the estimation of theguarantee charge and the presentation of the contract presentation areprovided (S5) And then, the guarantee contract is closed (S6), thehardware installation is done (S8) by installing the hardware includinguninterruptible power supply units (S7). The supervisory data such asoperation-state data is collected by operating the installed hardware(S9). In case that any hardware failure arises (S10), the failedhardware is recovered immediately (S11). The guarantee and billingconditions are identified by the obtained supervisory data, and theamount billed is estimated and the charge and billing process isperformed (S12). In case that any hardware failure is arising, whetherthe supplementary contract for guarantee can be applied is judged (S13),and then, the demanded compensation money is paid (S14). Finally, theafter-sales service is provided (S15). In case that hardware failure isnot occurred, the processing advances directly to step S12. Theguarantee and billing conditions are identified by the supervisory dataobtained in normal operation, and the amount billed is estimated and thecharge and billing process is performed (S12). In this case, theprocessing advances directly to step S15 after step S12.

According to the present invention, it will be appreciated that thebusiness owner can use the uninterruptible power supply unit without anyinitial investment, and that the availability of the uninterruptiblepower supply unit is guaranteed during the guarantee time in theguarantee period, and the business owner is expected only to pay theusage fee corresponding to the guarantee time, which results in theefficient operation of the facilities and equipment.

As described above, the merits for the business owner include thefollowing items.

-   (1) The business owner does not need any initial investment.-   (2) The business owner can use the uninterruptible power supply unit    for a long period of time such as 10 or 15 years.-   (3) The business owner can make the operation and management of the    uninterruptible power supply unit easier and reduce its management    cost by deploying the remote system.

On the other hand, the merits for the service provider include thefollowing items.

-   (4) The service provider can create new markets for the UPS    business.-   (5) The service provider can obtain the commercial profit and reduce    the cost.

Those merits can be attained by enabling the charge and billing processwith the guarantee charge defined by the fact that the availability ofthe electric power source is guaranteed by collecting and processingstatistically the operation status data.

1: A charge processing method that processes a charge based on amonitored operation-state of an uninterruptible power supply unitconnected to a load facility, said method comprising the steps of:obtaining operation-state data of said uninterruptible power supplyunit; and outputting a charge based on said operation-state dataaccording to a charge rate which is dependent on a guaranteed timelength for operation of said uninterruptible power supply unit. 2: Acharge processing method that processes a guarantee charge based on amonitored operation time of an uninterruptible power supply unitconnected to a load facility, said method comprising the steps of:obtaining an output of operation-state data of said uninterruptiblepower supply unit; and outputting a guarantee charge when saidoperation-state data agree with specified operation conditions of saiduninterruptible power supply unit including a guaranteed time length forsound operation thereof according to a guarantee charge rate which isdependent on both the operation condition of said uninterruptible powersupply unit and the guaranteed time length of sound operation thereof.3: A charge processing method that processes a guarantee charge based ona monitored operation-state of an uninterruptible power supply unitconnected to a load facility, said method comprising the steps of:obtaining operation-state data for both an operation condition and anoperation time of said uninterruptible power supply unit, judgingwhether said obtained operation-state data agree with specifiedconditions of the operation condition of said uninterruptible powersupply unit including a guaranteed time length for sound operationthereof; and outputting the stored guarantee charge when said judgementindicates agreement, and outputting the stored compensation money whensaid judgment indicates non-agreement according to a guarantee chargerate and a compensation money rate which are dependent on both theoperation condition of said uninterruptible power supply unit and theguaranteed time length of sound operation thereof. 4: A chargeprocessing method according to claim 3, wherein said guarantee charge iscomposed of a basic guarantee fee and a variable guarantee fee. 5: Acharge processing apparatus comprising: a unit to obtain anoperation-state of an uninterruptible power supply unit in a style ofdata; a memory unit to store a charge rate which is structured in amanner such that both an operation condition of said uninterruptiblepower supply unit and a guaranteed time length of sound operationthereof are reflected on a charging rate; and a processing unit toprocess a charge according to said operation-state based on contentsstored in said memory unit. 6: A charge processing apparatus accordingto claim 5, wherein said memory unit stores a rate of compensationmoney, and said processing unit processes demanded compensation money.7: A charge processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein saidcompensation money is determined according primarily to the guaranteeperiod of said uninterruptible power supply unit and secondarily to theguaranteed time length of sound operation of said uninterruptible powersupply unit.